Snow Day
by njborba
Summary: Derek and Emily start a snowball fight, which they rope other members of the team into joining.


Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the TV series, _Criminal Minds_.

**Snow Day  
**By N. J. Borba

* * *

Emily stood beside her car, but she stared out at the snow covered ground of the courtyard that faced the parking garage. The scenery looked pristine and peaceful. She felt a bit like she'd stepped back in time, having just been given a snow day off. It wasn't a free day off from school, though, but from work; a very rare occasion. The entire north-eastern seaboard was predicting a severe snow storm in the next twenty-four hours and nearly all governmental offices were closing down as a result.

Her eyes turned away from the snowy picture and she inserted her key into the door lock. But, before she could open it, Emily felt something soft and cold hit the back of her head. Ice crystals promptly seeped through her hair and over the collar of her wool jacket. She let go of the key, spun around and faced the open courtyard again. Emily didn't see anyone as she shook off most of the snow. Some of it slid further down her back, though, chilling her skin and soaking her blouse.

She stepped one foot into the courtyard and looked up, thinking the snow might have fallen off from a parapet or some other ornamentation on the side of the building. Not finding any evidence of that, Emily let it go and returned to her car. But a few seconds later another soft impact hit her on the shoulder and she pivoted on her right heal. Standing just three feet in front of her was Derek, snowball in hand as he smiled playfully.

"Isn't throwing snowballs kind of childish?" Emily questioned.

He shrugged, smile on his face. "My mom always says that when it snows, everyone is a child. What other reason would God provide snow for than to play in it?" As soon as those words left his mouth, the snowball in his hand launched at her.

Emily closed her eyes as snow exploded against her left cheek. "Derek Morgan, you're a dead man!" The key in her door remained there and her bag was dropped. She reached down and scooped up some of the white stuff, firing back at him.

"That doesn't sound like a very childish thing to say, Prentiss," he chuckled, dodging her snowball. "Relax a little. Have some fun!" Derek suggested, already gathering more snow and forming it into a compact sphere.

She patted a robust snowball with gloved hands. "I'd relax a lot better in front of a fire with a good book to read," Emily replied as she hit him square in the face.

He spit out snow and regained his bearings quickly. Derek scooped up another wad of snow and formed it into a ball. But when he looked up, ready to aim it in her direction, Emily had vanished. For a moment he was disappointed that she'd given up so easily, but he should have known better. His lament ended quickly when a huge snowball came hurdling toward him from over the top of a large row of hedges a few feet away. He easily side stepped it, but grinned.

"Taking cover," Morgan had to give her credit for that tactic. He scanned the courtyard and found a heavy concrete bench that would provide a nice shield. Derek jogged toward it and crouched down behind, gathering small mounds of snow up with his gloved hands. He had a decent sized armament in a short time. And the instant he saw her rise up to toss a snowball his way, he returned fire with two of his own.

Emily growled, frustrated that he always seemed able to one up her. Again she shook snow from her coat and hair. As she was amassing more snowballs, Emily caught sight of someone walking through the parking garage, not too far from her position. "Reid!" she called to him urgently but still in a hushed whisper. Emily watched as he glanced around for a few moments, looking a bit clueless. She finally flung a snowball at him to get his attention.

The young genius frowned, swiping snow off his pant leg as he slowly made his way toward her. "What are you doing?"

He barely got the words out before Emily grabbed his arm and pulled him down behind the bushes with her. A large snowball sailed over the hedge and hit one of the parking garage's columns behind them, narrowly missing Reid. "There's a war going on," Emily informed him, shaping more ammunition and lining them up along the base of the hedge line.

"A war?" Reid narrowed his eyes, wondering what the heck she was talking about. His knees were starting to get damp as he knelt beside her, and the commuter bag slung over his left shoulder was touching the snowy ground. He watched as she flung a couple snowballs into the courtyard and heard a muffled cry from behind a large bench in the middle of the space. "Who are you at war with?"

"Morgan," she hissed the name. "Apparently snow is supposed to make you feel like a kid, but he ambushed me and now its payback time." Emily pointed toward the stack of ammo with a serious look on her face. "Start throwing," she ordered the young man.

Reid bit his bottom lip. "Um, okay." He didn't want to admit that he was slightly afraid of her, so he followed orders and began to lob snowballs across the courtyard.

Derek could see Reid's head sticking up over Emily's fort and he had to admire the way she wagged war, even if she did have an unfair advantage at the moment. He heard footsteps nearby and turned to see JJ and Garcia walking toward their vehicles. "Hey, ladies," he called to them. "I need to even things out here," Morgan beckoned Penelope and JJ over. He realized two helping hands would more easily bring about Emily's demise.

The women looked a little leery, but easily complied when they were nearly hit by Prentiss who seemed relentless in her snowball throwing. "You need more ammo, and this bench is a lot lower than their hedge," Garcia pointed out. "I think that could be giving them a small advantage, because…"

JJ formed a snowball, thinking that her friend had played a few too many video games to know that much about battle plans. "It's three against two," the young blonde said. "All we have to do is outgun them," she concluded, joining Derek in the fight.

Morgan was pleased that his two new cohorts were doing a great job at helping fend off the enemy attack. "Face it, Prentiss, you're going to lose!" he shouted across the way. "You don't stand a snowball's chance of winning this," he chuckled at his own joke. Derek watched as both Reid and Emily stood up and launched a vicious assault. Garcia and JJ took the brunt of those hits, and one giant snowball missed him by a goodly distance. "Reid, you're throwing like a girl!" Morgan taunted.

Spencer's eyes widened as he took a second to turn toward Emily. There was a new fire burning in her eyes as Reid called back to the opponent. "That wasn't me, Morgan," the doctor shook his head and pointed toward the dark haired woman beside him.

"Oh, crap," Derek remarked with a tone that was half amused and half worried. He could see that Emily was not amused at all as she leveled her dark gaze on him.

Prentiss took Reid by the arm and they knelt down behind the hedge again. "We need a new plan," she mused. "Something they won't see coming."

"A sneak attack," David Rossi's voice joined their planning session. He stood a few feet away, leaning casually against a concrete column. The coat he wore barely looked decent for the blizzard conditions brewing outside and he had no gloves, but didn't seem overly chilled at all.

Emily smiled, mischievously. "And I have the perfect plan, which means you've just been recruited to our team," she pointed at the older man.

"Oh no," Rossi held up his hands and shook his head. "I don't want any part of this," he wagged a finger between the two sides, not sure what to call the battle he'd been witnessing from afar for several minutes.

"It's just a bit of fun," Emily tried to convince him in a nonchalant tone.

The elder profiler scoffed. "The look in your eyes tells a very different story. I think you're out for blood," Rossi replied, only half joking. He and Reid shared a quick glance and Spencer nodded in agreement. As they were talking, a snowball came careening across the courtyard and hit Rossi in the side of his head, causing snow to pack inside his ear. He turned to see Garcia waving a pink mitten-clad hand at him. She grinned too. "Okay," Dave gave in. "Now it's personal."

Emily smiled, slapped her gloved hands together and slid them back and forth. "This is what we need to do…" she began to map out her plan.

It had gotten way too quiet over at the enemy camp, which worried Derek. But when he saw Rossi emerge into the open courtyard he was more curious than concerned. "Are you on their team now?" Morgan shouted, keeping low and only revealing the upper half of his head over the top of the bench.

"No," Dave replied, hands at his side. He looked breezy as ever. "I'm an impartial third party. The others want to negotiate a cease-fire," Rossi announced.

"Really?" Morgan questioned.

Dave nodded. "They know they're outnumbered, and I'm not taking any sides here. Emily and Reid just want to make it safely to their cars."

Derek had no reason not to believe the man. The game had been fun, but he knew they'd taken it too far. Morgan slowly got to his feet, put his hands up in a show of peace and walked around the bench to join Rossi in the middle of the courtyard. "I think that can be arranged," he gave in.

"Sucker!" Emily cried out as she and Reid made a mad rush toward the unarmed man.

Morgan could see they were carrying a coat between them that was pilled high with snowballs. He soon realized that it was Emily's coat. She was actually running around in the freezing weather with only her sweater on. As he was being pelted with a slew of snowballs, Derek forgot all about his momentary reprieve and ran headlong toward the woman who had duped him. His tackle was a lot harder than he'd planned, but she came back fighting, even though he had her pinned to the snow covered ground.

"I'm freezing here," Emily protested as she felt the cold seep through her back.

"I guess you should have thought about that before using your coat as an attack weapon," Derek tried not to laugh as she continued to fight back, flinging small scoops of snow at him. He held her down with one hand and took a big handful of snow in the other. It was shoved into her face the next instant and they both laughed at the ridiculousness of their game.

"Children!" Hotch's voice caught them all off guard and they froze, mid snowball fight. The man stood at the edge of the parking garage, briefcase in his left hand and right hand on his hip. He looked the perfect picture of an overprotective, and slightly amused, mother. "In case you haven't noticed. It's stared to snow again. I suggest you all get home like you were instructed an hour ago."

Emily and Derek watched as their boss turned away. They swore they could hear soft laughter echoing through the parking garage as he departed. Morgan got to his feet and extended a hand down to Emily. She took it and stood, grateful for his help up. The two of them noticed JJ and Garcia helping brush snow off of Reid's jacket and pants. Rossi chuckled and dusted himself off before taking cover in the garage again.

As the adrenaline from their game wore off, Emily shivered a little and rubbed hands over her shoulders. Derek moved toward the spot in the courtyard were her coat had been dropped. He shook it out and handed it to her. "Probably won't keep you too warm now," he noted, feeling that the soft wool was rather chilled from the snow arsenal it had carried. "I think you should get home and sit in front of the fire with a good book," he suggested with a cheeky grin.

She rolled her eyes at his comment while pulling on her coat. "That _was_ the original plan," Emily smiled too, having rather enjoyed their impromptu snowball battle. Her right hand hovered in front of him, placed in the universal position for handshaking. "A real cease-fire," she offered.

"Deal," Morgan shook firmly and nodded his head in agreement as downy snowflakes fluttered to the ground all around them.

* * *

**End**


End file.
